Word power

Greg Goodale, center, presides over a word game in a public-speaking course for first-year students. Photo by Brooks Canaday.

Some 19 first-​​year female stu­dents in a public-​​speaking course have been charged with telling an imag­i­nary girl that she must change the sound of her irri­tating laugh. The game has but two cru­cial rules: Stu­dents must not hes­i­tate to speak when called upon and may only use mono­syl­labic words to form gram­mat­i­cally cor­rect sentences.

Greg Goodale, an assis­tant pro­fessor of com­mu­ni­ca­tion studiesin the Col­lege of Arts, Media, and Design, pre­sides over the com­pe­ti­tion in 206 Lake Hall and is often quick to elim­i­nate par­tic­i­pants from con­tention for failure to comply with the rules. “Bad grammar,” he shouts over a din of laughter. “You’re out.”

The exer­cise is designed to build self-​​confidence, a befit­ting lesson for a class focused on inspiring women through the power of speech. Goodale summed up the goal of the course, saying, “It’s impor­tant to believe that you can change the world and then go out and doing it.”

The course has a service-​​learning com­po­nent. In late October, the stu­dents vis­ited Girls’ LEAP, a Dorchester-​​based non­profit empow­er­ment and aware­ness pro­gram for girls aged 8–18. They intro­duced the program’s par­tic­i­pants to public-​​speaking strate­gies like Monroe’s moti­vated sequence, a five-​​step tech­nique for orga­nizing a per­sua­sive speech, and stressed the impor­tance of eye con­tact, enun­ci­a­tion, and vocal pro­jec­tion. Girls in the pro­gram put those public-​​speaking strate­gies to good use later in the year, holding speak-​​outs at schools and civic orga­ni­za­tions in the community.

Maria Sofia Soto, a first-​​year com­mu­ni­ca­tions studies major from the Dominican Republic, felt a strong kin­ship with girls in the pro­gram, some of whom had hailed from her home­land. “It’s encour­aging for them to see a girl from the Dominican Republic who is going to col­lege,” she said.

Soto dis­cussed the service-​​learning expe­ri­ence just days before she was sched­uled to deliver an eight-​​minute speech without the aid of note cards. She char­ac­ter­ized the assign­ment as “chal­lenging” and “ter­ri­fying,” but nonethe­less looked for­ward to the task.

Isabella Kirsch, a first-​​year com­mu­ni­ca­tion studies major from New York, agreed with Soto’s assess­ment of the course. “I wake up and want to go to class,” she said. “It’s so inter­ac­tive and inspiring.”

According to Kirsch, the most dif­fi­cult activity in the public-​​speaking course is the so-​​called “tor­ture game.” In hers, she had to deliver a con­cise argu­ment in favor of turning tennis into a main­stream sport while staring at other stu­dents in the class without blinking.

The game, she said, has improved her self-​​confidence and debating skills. “It teaches you how to fight for some­thing you are pas­sionate about.”

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About the Writer

Jason Kornwitz, AS' 08, has called Northeastern home since 2003. In his spare time, he enjoys playing sports, watching pretentious movies, and cooking kingly breakfasts. Follow him on Twitter @jasonkornwitz.

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